An open letter to FDEV [Updated 08/09]

Go to page

Go to page

I absolutely love Elite. I love the universe that has been built and the community that engages within it. I love the bad guys murdering everyone, I love the community groups pulling together to make a near empty sandbox into an incredible fun living galaxy for us all to enjoy.

I love how every Cmdr can blaze their own trail. Be it expanding the influence across their sectors, or hunting down rivals across the galaxy. The customisation in engineering and the real love you feel for your ship, be it a little DBX hopping across the galaxy, or the nimble FDL being thrown around at break neck speeds.

I love the massive PvP wing fights i’ve engaged in, the Thargoid hunting parties and the exploration of new sights across the galaxy.

But the thing I love most is also what I hate most. It is what WE have made of the game. Plugging holes with our own narratives, factions mostly ignored bringing fresh content in events and stories. Rivalries and enemies leading to wars. Politics over discord not much unlike the United Nations. It makes it real, living, and leads to a lot of time being invested.

But that is why I am finally getting frustrated with FDEV. I co run a faction with a great leadership team, and even better members numbering over a thousand. I sit there whilst people complain about the mistakes made by Fdev, the broken promises, the hype and tell them it’s going to be okay. That they share the love of the game that you guys do. When the chats get disgruntled, i’m always there fighting off the negativity and supporting you guys in a face where servers, reddit, your own forums are full of people criticising the work that you do.

I’ve been playing for many years, and consider myself a true Elite fan.

But unlike some I see… I am not blind to the reality it is becoming.

The bright sparks you release are only bright because of the depths of darkness surrounding them. Promises are made constantly that are broken. Your team seem completely detached from the game and engagement is honestly token at best.

You have teased us content, and then taken it away. Then replaced that with the meme that so fits FDEV of ‘SOON’

It’s almost as if you don’t trust us. Your player base are older adults, and we know when we are being sold a yarn. An example is Destiny… 100 days prior to launch you get trailers, leaks, interviews… we get thrown together live streams just before a release, a release that we all know and expect will be broken in many ways before it gets right.

We have our methods of communicating with you. Servers on discord and forums, we engage with you, trying to help you understand what we the community want from you… and are once again ignored.

It’s not us being selfish, it’s not us feeling entitled. We pay money into this game, our time. Ship kits are purchased even if we aren’t going to use them. Cosmetic items invested in because we invest in you, the game, because we want you to produce something that we can all enjoy together.

But again, it gets borked.

The Crusader… an absolute disaster. It literally has no point in the game. It was thrown out with the quality control that you should not be just apologising for, but actually be ashamed of.

Guardian tech brokers, grinds where you promised narratives, again needing to be fixed as you seem to try and hold on to tooth and nail to pushing out the biggest grind you can.

Power Play discussions, offering glimmers of hope to some and dispair to others seem to be discussed for the tick in the box of community engagement and then completely ignored.

And now the Gnosis… I mean that has been a disaster.

You talk of these permit locked systems… in your release of god moding switches. The fact is FDEV many of us don’t believe you. You tell us Raxlaa is in game, we don’t believe you. You tell us that permit locked regions are locked for a reason, we don’t believe you. You don’t ever tell us anything, treating us like children and then scrambling to fix something you break instead of engaging with us.

You must worry as the hype train gets carried away at times, and you can manage that. Instead of burying your heads in the sand all you need to do is engage with us. “Guys we can’t do that because…” instead of these politicians answers that drive the older audience you have insane.

No mans sky listened…

Destiny listened…

You rely far to much on the good will of players and wandering around the discords today its waning.

I mean the Gnosis… honestly…

You set it up for something great… a massive attack on the megaship. But instead of ANY TESTING WHATSOEVER you just released it. You can sit here and tell me it was tested etc, etc, but it wasn’t. 5 minutes play time and you would have seen what was happening. Do you honestly think we would mind if the servers were down for an hour or so to make sure you got it right? Of course not.

It feels none of you play, or are really involved in the game other than the token community efforts. Watching people play on your live streams show us that at how bad they know the mechanics. I’m not saying that they should all be elite combat pilots etc, but they should know how to handle a ship and the basics of the game better than they do.

Combat logging… one of the biggest issues in this game (And this is not going to turn into a logging rant) has been ignored. Once again with notices of “we can’t tell you.” or my favourite from years ago on the forums “We are looking at a solution and have an announcement soon.”

Are you really surprised that you get this backlash?

My ship got destroyed at the Gnosis. After rallying together almost 50 Cmdrs to come along. I managed their hype. I expected a system with signal sources to fight and the content WE create. Defending explorers from bad guys whilst fighting goids. I look back at the excitement and were not really excited for anything YOU were actually delivering, but more what we had created. And in meddling with it, you actually managed to ruin it with a bodged effort with little to no engagement.

I submitted a ticket. more than 4 hours ago. I’m still at the Cali nebula…

Why should I pick up Elite again? For my faction, for my community, but at the moment definitely not for you guys.

You don’t stand up for the bad guys when they shoot who they want. You don’t stand up for the good guys when exploits are taken advantage of. You don’t stand up for the tin foilers when they start feeling like they are making progress in a mess of a story. You don’t stand up for the factions when they come to you with help because the ‘mysterious BGS’ gets silently changed.

You don’t listen to the PvPers and Pirates suffering combat logging, you don’t listen to the Cmdrs when they tell you what they want in a ship.

You literally have hundreds of people who want to engage with you. Factions who want to be part of this journey. I know you can’t please everyone, but honestly as it stands you might as well not engage at all.

We’ve walked this journey with you so far as you lead us. But as I look around i’m starting to see more and more people breaking off to other things, and every time I ask why, or to come back it’s you guys who have pushed them away. The pain is seeing it being such a difficult decision for them because of the community they love.

You need to sort this out guys, and the way you are going to do that is by communicating and listening. Cut the crap, sort the problems and listen. If something can’t be sorted!! Then bloody say it! Stop this… ‘we are aware of an issue and are looking at it’ Don’t tell us you punish combat loggers and can’t disclose the result when plenty of other games do exactly that! Don’t release content that hasn’t been quality assessed then tell us it has!

I’m on my last life with you guys, please sort it out.

EDIT: 0930BST my ticket was submitted to be returned to the Gnosis... as of yet, nothing.

2nd EDIT 1522hrs returned to the Gnosis by Fdev, yet to find the will to turn it on.

3rd EDIT 08/09 - Response to response and thoughts on update around dedicated servers for missions and implementation - Please note i'm not a forum pro, so if my editing and way of updating this is bad, please let me know how I should best do it.

So guys, thank you all for your response. It’s nice to see the community on the same page in the greater sense. I never expected such a response. My discord blew up, my Xbox live blew up and this blew up.

It is not my intention to bash Fdev in any way shape or form. Just to make my feelings known and it seems that my feelings are echoed by many here.

I write this post due to the update that has been just been dropped. The dedicated server for missions!!

Again! this is great news in many ways. It fixes the issues of buggy menu boards, it fixes the issue of board flipping and having to log in and out of the game time and time again. What it doesn’t fix however are the reasons that this is done.

Now I appreciate they have explained that data has been taken to indicate how many people utilise this feature. It seems a very low percentage. However I would bet that the low percentage are the long term core players and BGS players rather than the large new part of the community. That percentage is difficult to agree with. I rarely run missions myself, but when I do (usually for BGS) i’m stacking or flipping because I can’t get the mission types I require, or to make it actually profitable to run them in line with the most expensive commodity on the line of my time. I believe few use missions as the main core income in the game except at start to mid levels within the game.

This is good news, it’s a step in the right direction and shows wholeheartedly that the developers are trying to improve, striving to move forward with the game and get things sorted. The minute I heard dedicated server I smiled, a pipe dream of mine is for Elite to be all on dedicated servers capable of handling huge instances of Cmdrs.

Now the worry I have is over a number of points. The reasons that people board flip are numerous. The availability of missions that make credit per hours gameplay engaging and worth it. BGS to counteract the borked system of system authority kills. We have a Cmdr who has racked up over a billion bounty, plays in private group and logs on ATR if (And when) they turn up, making it extremely difficult to keep up with her efforts. Mission running as it is requires board flipping from numerous Cmdrs to ensure we can counteract it when she goes on an attention spree.

Credits… 10% is not a lot and I do wonder where this number came from. Does it include more missions spawning as well, including missions of different type? Will we have filters? Will we have separate boards for missions types where appropriate? Having a 10% increase across boom data deliveries is meaningless. Where a 10% increase on wing missions at elite/allied is massive and only benefits those (like myself) who play in open with groups of people.

All of this is unknown and once again an announcement dropped that instantly feels like it’s a nerf because of this happening in the past.

In light of the recent happenings… (And in recent I don’t mean Gnosis I mean last 6-8 months) and us baying for communication and engagement it doesn’t seem to have been listened to. No one has responded to this post except to move it back to this forum for discussion, no one has messaged me despite having numerous means to do so public or otherwise outside a message saying ‘the team are reading it’. However I do get a message to ask how i’m finding the challenger back when it was released after giving some positive feedback about the Krait?

I’m aware of discussions with groups around BGS feedback and other aspects of the game. However this seems to have once again been an announcement that could have been made some time ago, giving time to refine and work it instead of dropping when things within the community feel to be going wrong?

You may have considered all of the above worries and already are working on a solution for them… if that is the case then great! But you need to tell us? As it stands a percentage of your community are again worried that something is going to be implemented, borked, and then require a scramble to fix it.

A post before hand, “Guys we have some exciting news, we want to stop board flipping but need your feedback as to what you want to see? What are your concerns? What do we need to implement?” and get the concerns. You don’t have to do it publicly, you are engaged with enough Cmdrs to start getting some extremely focused feedback across BGS worries, big faction worries, newbie worries, balance worries.

I support you in balance. Perfectly balanced as all things should be is the best way to look at the game. From PvP weapons, to exploration payouts and experience to mission and cargo runners to piracy. All should provide income, a way to expand our personal narratives and prevent OP metas dominating.

To detract the nay sayers and negative nancies we need to know that these things are considered. Especially now. Because I will put a cutter rebuy on the line and say this will have serious issues on launch, and affect the game in ways that you don’t foresee, but we do.

Fly safe Cmdrs, and again Fdev, I love the universe you have created, I appreciate the hard work many of you do. The community managers are great people! and have the hardest jobs of all because we are a passionate vocal lot. I’m just still waiting for that communication.

And guys this thread has been 99% cordial, polite and engaging, even with people who completely disagree with me, thank you for that. I know how quickly forums can quickly turn into salty content.

I absolutely love Elite. I love the universe that has been built and the community that engages within it. I love the bad guys murdering everyone, I love the community groups pulling together to make a near empty sandbox into an incredible fun living galaxy for us all to enjoy.

I love how every Cmdr can blaze their own trail. Be it expanding the influence across their sectors, or hunting down rivals across the galaxy. The customisation in engineering and the real love you feel for your ship, be it a little DBX hopping across the galaxy, or the nimble FDL being thrown around at break neck speeds.

I love the massive PvP wing fights i’ve engaged in, the Thargoid hunting parties and the exploration of new sights across the galaxy.

But the thing I love most is also what I hate most. It is what WE have made of the game. Plugging holes with our own narratives, factions mostly ignored bringing fresh content in events and stories. Rivalries and enemies leading to wars. Politics over discord not much unlike the United Nations. It makes it real, living, and leads to a lot of time being invested.

But that is why I am finally getting frustrated with FDEV. I co run a faction with a great leadership team, and even better members numbering over a thousand. I sit there whilst people complain about the mistakes made by Fdev, the broken promises, the hype and tell them it’s going to be okay. That they share the love of the game that you guys do. When the chats get disgruntled, i’m always there fighting off the negativity and supporting you guys in a face where servers, reddit, your own forums are full of people criticising the work that you do.

I’ve been playing for many years, and consider myself a true Elite fan.

But unlike some I see… I am not blind to the reality it is becoming.

The bright sparks you release are only bright because of the depths of darkness surrounding them. Promises are made constantly that are broken. Your team seem completely detached from the game and engagement is honestly token at best.

You have teased us content, and then taken it away. Then replaced that with the meme that so fits FDEV of ‘SOON’

It’s almost as if you don’t trust us. Your player base are older adults, and we know when we are being sold a yarn. An example is Destiny… 100 days prior to launch you get trailers, leaks, interviews… we get thrown together live streams just before a release, a release that we all know and expect will be broken in many ways before it gets right.

We have our methods of communicating with you. Servers on discord and forums, we engage with you, trying to help you understand what we the community want from you… and are once again ignored.

It’s not us being selfish, it’s not us feeling entitled. We pay money into this game, our time. Ship kits are purchased even if we aren’t going to use them. Cosmetic items invested in because we invest in you, the game, because we want you to produce something that we can all enjoy together.

But again, it gets borked.

The Crusader… an absolute disaster. It literally has no point in the game. It was thrown out with the quality control that you should not be just apologising for, but actually be ashamed of.

Guardian tech brokers, grinds where you promised narratives, again needing to be fixed as you seem to try and hold on to tooth and nail to pushing out the biggest grind you can.

Power Play discussions, offering glimmers of hope to some and dispair to others seem to be discussed for the tick in the box of community engagement and then completely ignored.

And now the Gnosis… I mean that has been a disaster.

You talk of these permit locked systems… in your release of god moding switches. The fact is FDEV many of us don’t believe you. You tell us Raxlaa is in game, we don’t believe you. You tell us that permit locked regions are locked for a reason, we don’t believe you. You don’t ever tell us anything, treating us like children and then scrambling to fix something you break instead of engaging with us.

You must worry as the hype train gets carried away at times, and you can manage that. Instead of burying your heads in the sand all you need to do is engage with us. “Guys we can’t do that because…” instead of these politicians answers that drive the older audience you have insane.

No mans sky listened…

Destiny listened…

You rely far to much on the good will of players and wandering around the discords today its waning.

I mean the Gnosis… honestly…

You set it up for something great… a massive attack on the megaship. But instead of ANY TESTING WHATSOEVER you just released it. You can sit here and tell me it was tested etc, etc, but it wasn’t. 5 minutes play time and you would have seen what was happening. Do you honestly think we would mind if the servers were down for an hour or so to make sure you got it right? Of course not.

It feels none of you play, or are really involved in the game other than the token community efforts. Watching people play on your live streams show us that at how bad they know the mechanics. I’m not saying that they should all be elite combat pilots etc, but they should know how to handle a ship and the basics of the game better than they do.

Combat logging… one of the biggest issues in this game (And this is not going to turn into a logging rant) has been ignored. Once again with notices of “we can’t tell you.” or my favourite from years ago on the forums “We are looking at a solution and have an announcement soon.”

Are you really surprised that you get this backlash?

My ship got destroyed at the Gnosis. After rallying together almost 50 Cmdrs to come along. I managed their hype. I expected a system with signal sources to fight and the content WE create. Defending explorers from bad guys whilst fighting goids. I look back at the excitement and were not really excited for anything YOU were actually delivering, but more what we had created. And in meddling with it, you actually managed to ruin it with a bodged effort with little to no engagement.

I submitted a ticket. more than 4 hours ago. I’m still at the Cali nebula…

Why should I pick up Elite again? For my faction, for my community, but at the moment definitely not for you guys.

You don’t stand up for the bad guys when they shoot who they want. You don’t stand up for the good guys when exploits are taken advantage of. You don’t stand up for the tin foilers when they start feeling like they are making progress in a mess of a story. You don’t stand up for the factions when they come to you with help because the ‘mysterious BGS’ gets silently changed.

You don’t listen to the PvPers and Pirates suffering combat logging, you don’t listen to the Cmdrs when they tell you what they want in a ship.

You literally have hundreds of people who want to engage with you. Factions who want to be part of this journey. I know you can’t please everyone, but honestly as it stands you might as well not engage at all.

We’ve walked this journey with you so far as you lead us. But as I look around i’m starting to see more and more people breaking off to other things, and every time I ask why, or to come back it’s you guys who have pushed them away. The pain is seeing it being such a difficult decision for them because of the community they love.

You need to sort this out guys, and the way you are going to do that is by communicating and listening. Cut the crap, sort the problems and listen. If something can’t be sorted!! Then bloody say it! Stop this… ‘we are aware of an issue and are looking at it’ Don’t tell us you punish combat loggers and can’t disclose the result when plenty of other games do exactly that! Don’t release content that hasn’t been quality assessed then tell us it has!

I’m on my last life with you guys, please sort it out.

EDIT: 0930BST my ticket was submitted to be returned to the Gnosis... as of yet, nothing.

I think players are getting tired of this "wait-and-see" game plan that Frontier has... Especially when the payoff is minimal at best. They keep bringing up the lore involved in the permit locked sections of the Galaxy, but they barely have even given us a narrative as to what's really going on. No, I don't want to be hand-fed the story, but at the same time there has to be a story... I'm seeing pieces feeling left unfinished all over the place. Whether it's the mysteries of the Rift, The abandoned INRA stations, and even the meaningless Direction and purpose of the thargoids entering the bubble. There is a narrative in the books that speak of two different thargoids factions, honestly they all seem like they're on the same side to me. These are all the narratives that seem like they should have been a bigger deal, but we're left with gaps and unanswered questions. And now we have this supposed lure and narrative going on with the cone sector... I'm beginning to wonder if we're ever going to reach that lower or if Frontier is just going to dwindle down their support of this game to near nothing.

I absolutely love Elite. I love the universe that has been built and the community that engages within it. I love the bad guys murdering everyone, I love the community groups pulling together to make a near empty sandbox into an incredible fun living galaxy for us all to enjoy.

I love how every Cmdr can blaze their own trail. Be it expanding the influence across their sectors, or hunting down rivals across the galaxy. The customisation in engineering and the real love you feel for your ship, be it a little DBX hopping across the galaxy, or the nimble FDL being thrown around at break neck speeds.

I love the massive PvP wing fights i’ve engaged in, the Thargoid hunting parties and the exploration of new sights across the galaxy.

But the thing I love most is also what I hate most. It is what WE have made of the game. Plugging holes with our own narratives, factions mostly ignored bringing fresh content in events and stories. Rivalries and enemies leading to wars. Politics over discord not much unlike the United Nations. It makes it real, living, and leads to a lot of time being invested.

But that is why I am finally getting frustrated with FDEV. I co run a faction with a great leadership team, and even better members numbering over a thousand. I sit there whilst people complain about the mistakes made by Fdev, the broken promises, the hype and tell them it’s going to be okay. That they share the love of the game that you guys do. When the chats get disgruntled, i’m always there fighting off the negativity and supporting you guys in a face where servers, reddit, your own forums are full of people criticising the work that you do.

I’ve been playing for many years, and consider myself a true Elite fan.

But unlike some I see… I am not blind to the reality it is becoming.

The bright sparks you release are only bright because of the depths of darkness surrounding them. Promises are made constantly that are broken. Your team seem completely detached from the game and engagement is honestly token at best.

You have teased us content, and then taken it away. Then replaced that with the meme that so fits FDEV of ‘SOON’

It’s almost as if you don’t trust us. Your player base are older adults, and we know when we are being sold a yarn. An example is Destiny… 100 days prior to launch you get trailers, leaks, interviews… we get thrown together live streams just before a release, a release that we all know and expect will be broken in many ways before it gets right.

We have our methods of communicating with you. Servers on discord and forums, we engage with you, trying to help you understand what we the community want from you… and are once again ignored.

It’s not us being selfish, it’s not us feeling entitled. We pay money into this game, our time. Ship kits are purchased even if we aren’t going to use them. Cosmetic items invested in because we invest in you, the game, because we want you to produce something that we can all enjoy together.

But again, it gets borked.

The Crusader… an absolute disaster. It literally has no point in the game. It was thrown out with the quality control that you should not be just apologising for, but actually be ashamed of.

Guardian tech brokers, grinds where you promised narratives, again needing to be fixed as you seem to try and hold on to tooth and nail to pushing out the biggest grind you can.

Power Play discussions, offering glimmers of hope to some and dispair to others seem to be discussed for the tick in the box of community engagement and then completely ignored.

And now the Gnosis… I mean that has been a disaster.

You talk of these permit locked systems… in your release of god moding switches. The fact is FDEV many of us don’t believe you. You tell us Raxlaa is in game, we don’t believe you. You tell us that permit locked regions are locked for a reason, we don’t believe you. You don’t ever tell us anything, treating us like children and then scrambling to fix something you break instead of engaging with us.

You must worry as the hype train gets carried away at times, and you can manage that. Instead of burying your heads in the sand all you need to do is engage with us. “Guys we can’t do that because…” instead of these politicians answers that drive the older audience you have insane.

No mans sky listened…

Destiny listened…

You rely far to much on the good will of players and wandering around the discords today its waning.

I mean the Gnosis… honestly…

You set it up for something great… a massive attack on the megaship. But instead of ANY TESTING WHATSOEVER you just released it. You can sit here and tell me it was tested etc, etc, but it wasn’t. 5 minutes play time and you would have seen what was happening. Do you honestly think we would mind if the servers were down for an hour or so to make sure you got it right? Of course not.

It feels none of you play, or are really involved in the game other than the token community efforts. Watching people play on your live streams show us that at how bad they know the mechanics. I’m not saying that they should all be elite combat pilots etc, but they should know how to handle a ship and the basics of the game better than they do.

Combat logging… one of the biggest issues in this game (And this is not going to turn into a logging rant) has been ignored. Once again with notices of “we can’t tell you.” or my favourite from years ago on the forums “We are looking at a solution and have an announcement soon.”

Are you really surprised that you get this backlash?

My ship got destroyed at the Gnosis. After rallying together almost 50 Cmdrs to come along. I managed their hype. I expected a system with signal sources to fight and the content WE create. Defending explorers from bad guys whilst fighting goids. I look back at the excitement and were not really excited for anything YOU were actually delivering, but more what we had created. And in meddling with it, you actually managed to ruin it with a bodged effort with little to no engagement.

I submitted a ticket. more than 4 hours ago. I’m still at the Cali nebula…

Why should I pick up Elite again? For my faction, for my community, but at the moment definitely not for you guys.

You don’t stand up for the bad guys when they shoot who they want. You don’t stand up for the good guys when exploits are taken advantage of. You don’t stand up for the tin foilers when they start feeling like they are making progress in a mess of a story. You don’t stand up for the factions when they come to you with help because the ‘mysterious BGS’ gets silently changed.

You don’t listen to the PvPers and Pirates suffering combat logging, you don’t listen to the Cmdrs when they tell you what they want in a ship.

You literally have hundreds of people who want to engage with you. Factions who want to be part of this journey. I know you can’t please everyone, but honestly as it stands you might as well not engage at all.

We’ve walked this journey with you so far as you lead us. But as I look around i’m starting to see more and more people breaking off to other things, and every time I ask why, or to come back it’s you guys who have pushed them away. The pain is seeing it being such a difficult decision for them because of the community they love.

You need to sort this out guys, and the way you are going to do that is by communicating and listening. Cut the crap, sort the problems and listen. If something can’t be sorted!! Then bloody say it! Stop this… ‘we are aware of an issue and are looking at it’ Don’t tell us you punish combat loggers and can’t disclose the result when plenty of other games do exactly that! Don’t release content that hasn’t been quality assessed then tell us it has!

I’m on my last life with you guys, please sort it out.

EDIT: 0930BST my ticket was submitted to be returned to the Gnosis... as of yet, nothing.

For many people, Elite Dangerous and its community are part of their life.

Many of us have, perhaps naively, put thousands of hours into this game and some have spent considerable amounts of money for cosmetics under the delusion that their money will go towards developing ED.

For Frontier however, ED is just another money-making product; nothing more.

For many people, Elite Dangerous and its community are part of their life.

Many of us have, perhaps naively, put thousands of hours into this game and some have spent considerable amounts of money for cosmetics under the delusion that their money will go towards developing ED.

For Frontier however, ED is just another money-making product; nothing more.

I'm the OP's predecessor at EXO and with a heavy heart I fully agree with what he has so eloquently written here. I have never seen the community's wellspring of good faith in Frontier run so low. It really does feel like we are approaching crisis point with Elite and I don't know where we go from here. The feeling I have and what I'm seeing is not one of anger; we're past that. We're in the 4th stage of grief which is despair. The next stage is acceptance.....